Fetal Genome from mother’s blood
Written by: MDHealthGuide Staff | Posted on: Wednesday, January 4, 2012
For the first time, entire genome of a fetus could be mapped from a sample of its mother’s blood. This technical could open the door to new methods of prenatal genetic diagnosis.
In 1997, researchers in the Chinese University of Hong Kong showed that “floating” fetal DNA can be detected in maternal blood plasma as it passes across the placenta from fetal cells that have broken down.
The possibility of diagnosing genetic problems in a fetus without the need for invasive procedures such as chorionic villus sampling (CVS) or amniocentesis to extract fetal cells is very real.
Through a combination of DNA sequencing and sophisticated bioinformatics, researches have shown that it should be possible to detect any genetic disease from a sample of a pregnant woman’s blood. Since it is hard to distinguish fetal sequences from the larger quantity of a woman’s own DNA, the current techniques need much refinement. Great strides in genetic research !
Source: NewScientist
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